Biden Says 'I Am Running And Going To Win Again' At Wisconsin Rally Before ABC News Interview

President Biden forcefully vowed to stay in the presidential race at a rally in Madison, Wis., Friday, as he sought to quell doubts about his ability to run for reelection after his disastrous debate last week.

Whipping up the crowd in the key battleground state, Biden, as he has in the past, said: “I am running and going to win again.”

Biden acknowledged his poor debate and his age, but also touted his record as president, including his job creation numbers and support for abortion rights.

Biden said he was staying in the race because the voters chose him. “I’m the nominee of the Democratic Party,” Biden said. “Despite that some folks don’t seem to care who you voted for.”

The president spent much of his time attacking his opponent, former President Donald Trump, calling him a “one-man crime wave,” and painting a bleak portrait of what another Trump presidency would bring.

Biden’s next step will be a primetime interview with ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos, scheduled to air Friday night, his first interview since last week’s debate.

Live23 updates

Fri, July 5, 2024 at 10:29 PM GMT+2

‘Pass the torch, Joe,’ sign at Wisconsin rally reads

Someone in the crowd of around 300 people at Biden’s rally in Wisconsin held a sign that read: “Pass the torch, Joe.”

But speaking to the crowd on Friday afternoon, Biden insisted he was staying in the race. “I beat Donald Trump,” Biden said. “I will beat him again.”

Biden greets supporters at a campaign event in Madison, Wis. (Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images)
Fri, July 5, 2024 at 10:02 PM GMT+2

Report: Sen. Mark Warner attempting to assemble group of senators to convince Biden to drop out of 2024 race

Sen. Mark Warner, a Democrat who represents Virginia. (Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)

As President Biden was concluding a defiant speech in Madison, Wis., the Washington Post, citing two reliable sources, reported that Sen. Mark Warner, a Democrat from Virginia, was attempting to put together a group of Democratic senators to convince Biden to withdraw from the presidential race.
Fri, July 5, 2024 at 9:55 PM GMT+2

Biden: ‘I’m staying in the race’

During his 17-minute campaign speech in Madison, Wis., on Friday, President Biden’s central theme was that he would remain in the race despite his shaky performance in last week’s debate.

“Let me say this as clearly as I can: I’m the sitting president of the United States,” he said, reading off a teleprompter. “I’m the nominee of the Democratic party. I’m staying in the race.”

To reinforce that message his campaign tweeted out those same words as he spoke.

Let me say this as clearly as I can:

I’m the sitting President of the United States.

I’m the nominee of the Democratic party.

I’m staying in the race.

— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) July 5, 2024

As he finished his speech, the song “I Won’t Back Down” by Tom Petty drove the message home.
Fri, July 5, 2024 at 9:54 PM GMT+2

Biden exits podium

A defiant President Biden left the podium after delivering a 17-minute speech in which he vowed to stay in the race and beat Trump. Biden said he planned to continue his campaign stop in the overflow room after waving to the crowd.
Fri, July 5, 2024 at 9:47 PM GMT+2

Biden addresses age concerns

Biden addressed widespread concerns about his age during the Wisconsin rally.

“I know I look 40. I keep seeing all of those stories about I’m being too old,” Biden said before he touted what he’s accomplished since taking office, including creating millions of new jobs, insuring Americans under the Affordable Care Act, providing student debt relief and appointing the first Black woman to the Supreme Court.
Fri, July 5, 2024 at 9:42 PM GMT+2

Biden: ‘I am running and going to win again’

Biden speaks in Madison, Wis., on Friday. (Morry Gash/AP)

Reading from a teleprompter, chiding his opponent and vowing he would “win Wisconsin” in 2024, Biden appeared relaxed, even while acknowledging that last week’s debate was not his “best performance.”

Biden sought to assure Democrats that he will remain in the race.

“I am running and going to win again,” he said.
Fri, July 5, 2024 at 9:35 PM GMT+2

Biden’s Madison supporters have his back

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel talked to Biden’s supporters in the crowd about calls for him to withdraw from the race:

“I don’t even understand why this is a talking point,” Nancy Locante of Kenosha told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. “We’re all behind Joe.”

Lynn Dahl, 66, attributed issues with Biden’s debate performance to former President Donald Trump’s long list of false claims. “When he was faced with lies, I think that’s what set him off,” Dahl said. “It would confuse me if somebody came at me with that volume of lies as well.” Amber Cohen, 41, of Madison, said she would vote for the Democratic candidate no matter what, but said putting in anyone else is “a terrible idea this late in the race.”

“I’ve been a Democrat since I understood what a Democrat was, and I just feel like this is really important,” Cohen said. “I’m pretty tired of people just constantly questioning Biden’s age as if that’s the issue and not focusing on the utter barrage of lies he was faced with.”

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Fri, July 5, 2024 at 9:32 PM GMT+2

Biden takes the stage

Biden addresses the crowd. (Morry Gash/AP)

President Biden took the stage at his rally in Madison, Wis., at 3:30 p.m. ET. The crowd chanted, “Let’s go, Joe!”
Fri, July 5, 2024 at 9:23 PM GMT+2

Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers warms up crowd for Biden

Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers speaks before Biden at a campaign rally in Madison, Wis. (Morry Gash/AP)

Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers warmed up the crowd at Biden’s rally in Madison on Friday.

“I’ve been governor under both Joe Biden and Donald Trump and let me tell you the choice this November is absolutely clear. There’s only one president who has consistently delivered for Wisconsin and his name is Joe Biden,” Evers said.
Fri, July 5, 2024 at 9:15 PM GMT+2

Trump’s attacks remain constant

Donald Trump has embraced Biden’s uncomfortable position, mocking him on social media and claiming from a golf course that he had already knocked his Democratic foe from the race. Business Insider reports on how Trump’s attacks have remained constant through the end of the week:

On the morning of July 5, Donald Trump posted on Truth Social 23 times in the span of 10 minutes. Though some have suggested that the former president is remaining strategically quiet in the wake of last week’s debate, he’s not staying silent on social media — or in person.

The flurry of activity — between 10:28 a.m. and 10:38 a.m. — included everything from polling graphics to pictures from the golf course. Trump’s other posts over the past week have been similarly wide-ranging. Some days, he shares lengthy paragraphs about Biden’s policy failures; on others, he shares campaign videos or an uncaptioned, zoomed-in, pixelated image of Joe Biden’s face looking oddly tan.

Read the full article here.
Fri, July 5, 2024 at 9:08 PM GMT+2

Sen. Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin will not attend Biden’s rally there

Sen. Tammy Baldwin. (Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call via Getty Images)

One notable absence from Biden’s rally in Madison, Wis., on Friday will be Democratic Sen. Tammy Baldwin.

Baldwin, who is up for reelection this year, will instead continue her campaign swing through several Wisconsin counties.

“I’m so excited to kick off my ‘Fired Up for Tammy’ tour,” Baldwin said in an announcement Tuesday, Fox News reported. “In the theme of our nation’s Independence Day, I’ll be meeting with voters from all over the state to talk about the ways we’re working to defend our freedoms and find solutions to the kitchen table issues that matter most to Wisconsin families.”

Read more from Fox News.
Fri, July 5, 2024 at 9:02 PM GMT+2

Project 2025 slammed at Biden rally: ‘We are not going to let that thing happen’

Ben Wikler, chair of the Democratic Party of Wisconsin, slammed the controversial Project 2025, a proposed overhaul of the U.S. government drafted by longtime Trump allies.

“Trump is in his castle rubbing his hands together thinking about how to rip away more freedoms from more people … trying to come up with new ways to advance his Project 2025,” Wikler said during the rally. “We are not going to let that thing happen.”

However, Trump has distanced himself from the proposed overhaul. The Associated Press reports:

“I know nothing about Project 2025,” Trump posted on his social media website. “I have no idea who is behind it. I disagree with some of the things they’re saying and some of the things they’re saying are absolutely ridiculous and abysmal. Anything they do, I wish them luck, but I have nothing to do with them.”

Project 2025 outlines a dramatic expansion of presidential power and a plan to fire as many as 50,000 government workers to replace them with Trump loyalists. President Joe Biden’s reelection campaign has worked to draw more attention to the agenda, particularly as Biden tries to keep fellow Democrats on board after his disastrous debate.

Trump has outlined his own plans to remake the government if he wins a second term, including staging the largest deportation operation in U.S. history and imposing tariffs on potentially all imports. His campaign has previously warned outside allies not to presume to speak for the former president and suggested their transition-in-waiting efforts were unhelpful.
Fri, July 5, 2024 at 8:55 PM GMT+2

Biden cancels Sunday union appearance after strike announcement

Biden had been set to appear Sunday in Philadelphia before the National Education Association, the country’s largest teachers’ union. But after the NEA staff union announced it would be going on strike against NEA headquarters, Biden announced he would not be crossing its picket line, Reuters reports:

Biden will still travel to Pennsylvania this weekend, with details to be released later, the campaign said.

The National Education Association, with 3 million members, backed the Democratic president in his 2020 and 2024 presidential campaigns.

Biden, whose wife, Jill Biden, is a teacher and NEA member, calls himself the most pro-union president in history.

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Fri, July 5, 2024 at 8:37 PM GMT+2

Yahoo News answers reader questions about Biden and the 2024 election

President Biden speaks to active-duty military service members and their families during a Fourth of July celebration at the White House. (Susan Walsh/AP)

This week, we asked readers to send in their questions about President Biden’s future and the 2024 election. We received hundreds of responses and will continue to print them in installments. Here’s the first, which includes a question from Robert of Oaks Bluff, Mass.

Will the ABC News interview [with Biden] be edited?

Biden’s high-stakes interview with ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos will be aired unedited, in its entirety, the network says. This week, former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said “it is essential” for Biden to sit for “interviews with serious journalists” in order to reassure voters disturbed by his faltering debate performance. Yahoo News will live blog Friday’s interview.

Read the full article here.
Fri, July 5, 2024 at 8:27 PM GMT+2

Can a new presidential candidate still get on state ballots?

When it comes to the Democratic and Republican parties, their summer conventions provide an opportunity to select a candidate who will be set to automatically make it onto the ballot i n all 50 states, USA Today reports:

According to the National Association of Secretaries of State, a presidential candidate nominated by a political party that reaches certain criteria, usually based on the number of votes cast at a recent election, is placed on the general election ballot. The Democratic and Republican Parties easily reached the criteria in each state earlier this year.

This means that if Biden or Trump are nominated by their respective parties, their names will appear on the general election ballot in each state.

But if one of them were to drop out and/or a different candidate was nominated at the convention, that person instead would be placed on the general election ballot.

Click here to read the full article.
Fri, July 5, 2024 at 8:17 PM GMT+2

New Yahoo News/YouGov poll: 60% of Americans say Biden is not fit for another term as president

A new Yahoo News/YouGov poll confirmed what most viewers sensed after last Thursday’s presidential debate: that it was a disastrous night for the 81-year-old Biden, who looked unsteady, sounded sick, stumbled over his words and, at one point, lost his train of thought entirely.

A full 60% of Americans now say Biden is not “fit to serve another term as president.” Just 24% say he is fit. The president’s fitness rating has been that low only once before, in November 2023, and it has never been worse.

Yet the survey of 1,754 U.S. adults, which was conducted from June 28 to July 1, also shows that Biden (43%) remains statistically tied with Trump (45%), in a head-to-head matchup among registered voters — even after a performance that seemed to substantiate long-standing concerns about the president’s age and competence going forward.
Fri, July 5, 2024 at 8:00 PM GMT+2

Biden’s ABC interview may be ‘watershed moment’

The Associated Press reports on how much of Biden’s reelection campaign may be resting on his performance during Friday’s ABC News interview:

It could be a watershed moment for Biden, who is under pressure to bow out of the campaign after his disastrous debate performance against Republican Donald Trump ignited concern that the 81-year-old Democrat is not up for the job for another four years.

The interview with ABC’s George Stephanopoulos, being taped after a campaign rally in Madison, Wisconsin, is expected to be intensive and probing, and two people familiar with the president’s efforts said he had been preparing aggressively. They spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal planning.

There was broad agreement that Biden cannot afford to have another “bad day,” which is how he wrote off his debate flop. It was not clear that even a so-so performance would be enough to satisfy concerns about his fitness to serve.

Click here to read the full article.
Fri, July 5, 2024 at 7:50 PM GMT+2

Biden contradicts earlier White House claim on seeing doctor after debate

NBC News reported on the White House’s evolving statement as to whether Biden saw a doctor after last week’s debate:

President Joe Biden told Democratic governors Wednesday that he’d been cleared by a doctor after last week’s debate, contradicting earlier statements from the White House about his medical care.

…

Asked whether he’d received medical care after the debate, he told the assembled governors he was checked out by a doctor and that everything was fine, according to two sources familiar with the exchange. A few hours earlier, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre stated that Biden hadn’t undergone any medical exams since February when he last received a thorough physical and took several tests.

Click here to read the full article.
Fri, July 5, 2024 at 7:24 PM GMT+2

Biden campaign drops $50 million July ad buy

The Biden campaign is rolling out a July campaign schedule and advertising blitz in an attempt to show it is still very much in the race and committed to battling Donald Trump. Politico has more:

The president’s team announced on Friday that it would be layering more spending on top of the $50 million it has already spent on ads in June. The campaign also rolled out more details on its canvassing program, as they plan to knock on 3 million doors over the next two months. They also said Biden will headline NAACP and UnidosUS conferences in Las Vegas, which will serve as his counter-programming during the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee in mid-July.

…

The memo, released on Friday morning, pledged that Biden is “expected to engage in frequent off-the-cuff moments over the course of the month, as he has consistently throughout this campaign.” These unscripted moments have taken on even more importance, since the president often relies heavily on teleprompters during his events, both public and private.

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Fri, July 5, 2024 at 7:04 PM GMT+2

What is an open convention?

USA Today answers several questions about how a so-called open convention would play out at the upcoming Democratic National Convention.

An open convention happens when there is no pre-determined nominee to award the title, and the nominating process to find one would take place at the convention where delegates, once bound to Biden, would be able to cast their votes for whichever new candidate that emerged they wanted.

The Democratic party hasn’t had an open convention since 1968 during disputes over the Vietnam War.

Click here to read the full article.